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Update 1/14

Date: 17/1/2014

The January 2014 e-bulletin sent to all POS members is also available here

Extract:

Breaking News ...

... the shadow housing minister has indicated in a speech to the National House Building Council that a Labour government would require councils to include more 'small-scale' schemes in their five-year housing supply plans and make more public land available to small-scale developers.

Emma Reynolds said that assembling "an army of smaller firms and custom builders" would be key to the delivering of the party's pledge to build "at least" 200,000 new homes a year by 2020.

Reynolds added that Labour would ask every local authority in the country to create a new waiting list for people to register their interest in a custom-build, co-operative build or community land trust plot.

... meanwhile, the the government is "drawing up a fresh assault on planning laws", including revisions to requirements for EIAs. "The coalition will unveil a package of measures in April to help meet its target of building hundreds of thousands of new homes and stimulate the economy at the same time", a report in The Daily Telegraph said.

The report confirmed that the government is to push ahead with its plans to require planning authorities to discharge planning conditions more promptly, announced by the chancellor George Osborne is his 2013 Autumn Statement.